Laws of Power (6)

Court Attention At All Costs

“Everything is judged by its appearance; what is unseen counts for nothing. Never let yourself get lost in the crowd; then buried in oblivion. Stand out. Be conspicuous, at all costs. Make yourself a magnet of attention by appearing larger, more colourful, more mysterious than bland the bland timid masses.” – Greene 2002

DVC – one of my mentors – has ingrained in me that I must attach myself to something which is solid and great. What that something is, one must choose for himself; as long as that something is built upon a solid foundation. Many people think I’m naturally extrovert, but I operate as an introvert mostly in my daily life. It is only in the company of many others that I tend to shine brighter than others. It can be very draining at times. My mother always thought I was shy as a youth. She sent me to stage-school to learn singing, acting and dancing via a theatrical influence. It did indeed allow me to shine. I even ended up on some TV shows and acting in a West End show in front of thousands of people as a child.

This Law (in some sense) derives from Law 5 – guarding a great reputation. As mentioned in the previous blog post: Warren Buffet is a master at this. Although it must be noted that even negative attention can work in ones favour. Lloyd Blankfein for example seems to attract a host of negative attention due to his aggressive action displayed by Goldman Sachs (GS). Yet GS seems to stay at the top of its field in investment banking (Forbes 2016).

In essence, I do not take this law on-board in my personal life even though it does work. I feel it is not always necessary and can end up causing many to burn-out. Many people in this day and age become famous one minute and end up obscure the next. It would be much better to do good work and let the results speak for itself like Paul Tudor Jones (ETF HQ 2013) or Walter Schloss (Value Walk 2016) – who many outside the investment world, many do not know of.

Be ostentatious and be seen. What is not seen is as though it did not exist. It was light that first caused all creation to shine forth. Display fills up many blanks, covers up deficiencies and gives everything a section life; especially when it is backed up genuine merit – Baltasar Gracian (Greene, 2002)